


Eros and Psyche Retold

by sunshinedaisies



Category: The Maze Runner Series - All Media Types, The Maze Runner Series - James Dashner
Genre: Greek Mythology AU, Greek gods included, M/M, rate T for non-explicit sexual content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-22
Updated: 2015-10-22
Packaged: 2018-04-27 12:39:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5048887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunshinedaisies/pseuds/sunshinedaisies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A retelling of the classic greek love story of Psyche featuring minho and newt, told in the style of a fairy tale.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Eros and Psyche Retold

**Author's Note:**

> I've wanted to a Greek au of the gladers for a long time now. And since I reread some Greek myths, this story really stuck in my head. And I just had to retell it with Minho and newt. I take a lot of liberties with the Greek gods, but I hope I'm fairly accurate. Also I may have added allusions to the song of achilles and the little prince haha, see if you can spot them.

In the time when the Greek gods walked among the humans, there lived a mortal named Newt. His parents, the king and queen, had two older sons, but they loved their youngest best. Where his brothers grew haughty, he grew humble. Where they grew strong and fair, he grew swift and beautiful. So they delighted in battle, he delighted in music. They had learned to love power, Newt had learned to loved the people. They had debauched women, he, well, he found no inclinations. 

Amongst his kindness, he was also beautiful. Men and women both had paused to see him pass on the street. With kind greetings, he spoke to them. He learned their hardships and sought to give them comfort. He knew the working of this land unlike his high blooded brothers. For his greatness, the brothers despised him. So their hate grew for 17 years, the age of maturity, and the year their patents hinted that they would relinquish the throne from the eldest to give to the youngest. 

Gally, so the eldest was named, could no longer steep his anger without relinquishing his sanity. So he made a plot to dispose of his rival. Along with the middle brother, George, he traveled to deep recesses of the forest, under the guise of going on a hunting party to search for a grand stag as an ode to the feast for his brother's coming of age. 

In truth, they sought out a sorcerer who was rumored to live in these woods. They traveled so far for many hours until the darkness blanketed the sky and not even the full moon could shed light through the dense canopy. After passing a particularly terrifying grove of gnarled trees, a voice surrounded them. 

"Who dares to enter the dominion of Alby, the great sorcerer?" The voice asked. 

"We seek a sorcerer. We would have his magic undo a wrong done unto me by my own parents." Gally knew that he could not tell the sorcerer the truth behind his intentions. But the sorcerer knew, as he knew all things. And he knew that in coincidence with the Fate's prophecies, the brothers would ask for a curse to place unto the youngest. The curse would make him ill. Ill beyond anything the kingdoms best physicians could cure. Only one creature in the world would have the cure; stories told of a palace made of crumbling stones and a garden filed with stinging nettles. In this palace lived a creature none had ever seen, that to look upon its face would be to give up one's free will- no man or god could resist the monster. 

"I know the tribulations of which you speak, young prince. So I will bestow on you this curse." At this, he appeared before them and handed them a lyre made out of gold. "The moment your brother plays a tune on this instrument will his health fail." 

They bowed to the sorcerer. And continued back as a true hunting party. 

On the day of the celebration, they presented both the large stag they had caught, and after the feast, the golden lyre. It was as the sorcerer said. Young prince Newt had just played one tune on the beautiful instrument before being forced to retire early from a severe head ache. The next morning, he could not be woken up, though he breathed. 

They brought in physicians and healers and magicians from all over the kingdom. When none would work, they made offerings to the god of healing, Asclepius, and prayed to him for healing. Even he could not heal the prince. As a kindness to his father's favorites, he brought the matter directly to them. Apollo received the king and queen in his bright and dazzling throne room and gave them the prophecy. 

"Your son has been poisoned by godly means, and by godly means alone can he be cured. You must send your son to the palace of the monster Minho. For in his garden lies the fountain which would cure him." 

The king and queen wept. To send their beloved into the monster's palace would be like killing him a thousand times more. None who had ever ventured in the palace grounds to search for the fountain had ever returned. 

But as the god Apollo had commanded it, so they followed. They sent him in a covered lectica carried by six men. Behind him came a procession of servants bearing gifts of gold, rare fruit, and salted meat. They hoped to appease the monster and increase their sons chance of survival. 

At the palace gate, they set the lectica. Inside, the prince grew weary from anxiety rather the ill health. The servants all placed their offerings around the lectica. They did not have to wait long. At the first breath of pause, a strong wind came and the opened the heavy curtains that shielded the prince from the outside. The servants and their gifts were thrown back many feet. When the wind suddenly stopped, and they had time to get up, they found the prince was gone. The monster had taken their beloved prince. They brought the news to the parents and they prayed to the gods again that he would be safe. 

Inside the palace gates, Newt stood. From the outside, the palace had looked worn and old and surrounded by toxic plants. Now inside, he found that it was a powerful illusion. The palace glistened pale white and the windows were made of intricate mosaics of stained glass. The gardens were fragrant and bees hummed around happily. Newt was apprehensive of the sudden change and feared that it was only a trap to lure him into the monsters grasp. However, as nothing approached him, he began to search for the fountain. He was drawn as if by magic around the garden till he had reached the palace door. Without word or sound did it open to him. He grew frightful still and could not find it even for his health to step through the dark lobby. 

Then a voice said to him, "Fear not, dear prince, for he who cannot be seen has seen your heart and deemed you worthy. No evil will come to you, and nothing shall be expected of you- only love." 

So he lost his fear and stepped through the castle and into the inner garden. In this garden lay a fountain by which there rested a golden cup. He drank of it as Apollo told his parents, and immediately, he felt strength return to him. He began to hear the birds sing and the flowers seemed to open themselves in greeting. He gained confidence to travel throughout the house and found a banquet waiting for him. Afterwards, he was led by a series of lights to a magnificent bedroom. 

He had not lain on the bed long and blown out his candle before he felt a weight settle on the bed across from him. Newt began to fear for his life and begged the monster to spare him. 

The monster answered in a voice so clear and so gentle that Newt could not believe it could belong to evil. "Fear not," said he. "It is only me, the keeper of this house. I have seen your heart and wish nothing but to give you pleasure while you rest here." He spoke of truth and truth it was. Every day, Newt woke alone, free to explore the palace and it's gardens. Every day he drank of the fountain to keep the illness away. The palace provided everything he wanted. He felt hunger pang in his stomach and a meal was would appear before him. He had wish to bathe and a river would he find with water as clear as glass. His ears longed for music and a piano would play from a ballroom, enticing him to join in a duet. 

Newt soon came to know that no harm could ever come to him from this place, and that he was saved here by someone that could only love him. 

Every night, the being came, sometimes lying far and sometimes lying near to him. Every night he would ask if he was happy and Newt would reply that he was. Every night the being came to ask if Newt loved him. And every night Newt would reply that he did. How could he not love the one who would talk to him in the night time to reveal himself in words and stories? Monster or not, Newt found that he no longer believed the stories he had heard before. And regardless of whether or not he showed himself, Newt loved him.

Soon, the king and queen were given notice of their son's fate by Hermes, messenger of the gods. That he was safe in the monster palace, and would marry the monster, is all that they were told. The king and queen were grieved that the monster would force such a union but relieved that their son was alive.

His every pleasure, Minho, as he came to know the being, would grant him. From music and books, and gardens, and animals, from food and activity, everything he wanted. They would appear if he only wished it. 

One night, he came to wish to know the one whom he loved more. That night, Newt asked why he would only come in the night time and never in the light. Minho would reply that it was not time yet. But he allowed Newt to see him in a different sight. 

They sat on the bed, the weight of themselves bringing themselves closer to the other. 

"May I?" Newt would ask him. 

"Yes," Minho would reply. 

At first, Newt's hands barely touched him. They brushed his shoulder and moved to his neck. Gaining confidence, he began to use both hands. He felt broad shoulders, leading to the slight bump at his neck. They felt soft lips and a sharp nose. Eyes closed as fingertips brushed across them. Cheeks warmed as hands held them. 

"Not a monster, but a man. Perhaps a god," Newt thought. 

Still cupping Minho's face, he leaned closer, his thumbs tracing his beloved's lips. And they kissed. A chaste kiss it was. It said only, "I am here and I know you." 

Minho's kiss said more. His hands trailed in Newt's hair as his tongue asked permission for entrance. His kiss said, "I love you and will always love you." Underneath, it also said, " _I want more._ " 

Married as they now were, everything became permissible. Hands traced paths in new places, finding new things. Legs bumped and tangled into each other. Warmth rose in ways that made them seek each other rather than a cold wind. Questions were posed with new meaning. 

"Do you like this?" Minho asked when his fingertips brushed Newt's other entrance. His hips had jerked in response. 

"And this?" He asked as he grasped at Newt.

"How about this?" Newt could barely comprehend him under these circumstances, let alone with his mouth full of Newt. 

Every night they would do this. Exploring each other. Minho would be with Newt after abstaining from him while the sun shone. And Newt would learn every curve of every muscle, every feature of his face, the texture of his hair, the shape of his ears, the wrinkles in his eyes when he smiled, the length and girth of him, the shape of his collarbones, the sound of his voice when he was happy, when he was at his peak. Newt would know him by sight if he ever saw him. He was already so familiar to Newt. He did not need to see him.

The only pleasure not allowed to him was to see his love during the day. He would ask why he could not present himself to Newt and he would only reply, "It is not time." Newt began to ask every day, "is it time?" And Minho would reply, "Soon." But to the gods, as Newt suspected Minho was, "soon" had different meanings. How little they knew of time- they who lived forever. 

Another pleasure would Newt wish for. But this he feared to mention. To see his parents and his family, to spare them from grieving any longer, is what he wished. But he feared that they would try to take him away. He battled with these thoughts for many months, until finally, the thought of his parents grieving any longer overcame him. He begged his husband to permit them. Minho, moved by his thoughts of his family, allowed them. But he warned Newt to be wary of their words. Minho had known about the brothers plots against Newt, and he waned to have them alone with Newt again. 

Newt received his company with gladness. Immediately, his parents were relieved. Their son was dressed in fine clothes and housed in a magnificent palace. He was healthy and did not fear his husband. His brothers grew jealous. They sought to condone him to a life of ill health and misery, but here he received them stronger than ever and in a joyous palace. They heard what Newt had to say of his husband and they, too, suspected that it was a god. They began to place insecurities in his mind. 

"If you have never seen him, how can you be sure he is not a monster?" George began. 

"Yes, he may just be preparing to eat you," Gally said. 

"No, it is impossible. I do not need to see him to know he is not a monster," Newt defended. 

But his brothers continued. 

"Why would he not let you see him if he were not a monster? Surely he is gruesome to behold." 

"Then if he is gruesome I will still love him." 

"And bring shame to your family? You are married to an ugly creature and when he finally presents himself, not even the size of his palace or the beauty of his garden will redeem him." It was Gally who said this. He was cunning and knew how to twist his brothers heart. "Surely you would not wish to bring shame to your family?" 

Newt looked to his mother and father. "You would be ashamed only because he is ugly? He has done nothing but keep me safe." His parents began their disagreement with Gally's claims but they were cut short. 

"Dear brother, you underestimate our parents. Looks are vain and it is not vanity we wish for, but your safety. Your husband has captured many other people. All the people who have come before you for a cure have never been seen again. He is a murderer. A killer of peasants and royals both." 

This, Newt understood. To be connected to such a murderer brought his parents to tears for his safety. 

"You must look at him, my son," his mother cried. "If he is a monster, then you will know we are right and you must run away from him. We will keep you safe in our own castle." 

"And if we are wrong," his father said, "then you must simply blow out your candle. He will never know." 

"Go to him when he sleeps and with your candle, look on his face and see whether he is truly a monster to be feared." 

They departed, the parents with worry, and the brothers with gladness. Even if he were not a monster, they would leave their brother in shame forever at disobeying his husbands rule. 

That night, Minho greeted his husband in the darkness. Newt exempted nothing about their visit except their fears and consequent plot. When Minho slept, Newt asked for the palace to provide him a candle. A long tapered candle in a golden candle holder appeared on the table. He rose from the bed to obtain it, and shielding the flame with his hand, he walked over to where Minho lay. The golden light fell on his face and Newt gasped with amazement. A god his husband was; the nameless deity of storm and lightning, a godling under Zeus. He studied the sleeping subject and saw the hair as black as the night, the lips who's fullness he knew by touch, and strong muscles that his hands could never fully comprehend. His family was wrong. Something so beautiful and so kind could never be a monster nor a murderer. There was an explanation. 

As he looked at the man before him, Newt was filled with a sudden desire to kiss him. As he leaned forward, a drop of hot wax from the candle fell on the sleeping gods chest and he woke. 

"You have betrayed me." His voice was filled with grief. "If you had waited only till a year of our marriage, we would have lived in happiness for ever. Now I must depart from you." With that, he vanished. Newt stood by the bed, bathed in the light of the candle he had previously reveled in. But now his love was gone and he hated the candle. He blew it out. He would stand in darkness for 100 years if he could get his husband back. 

In the morning, Newt awoke to a forest surrounding him. The palace was gone and the garden had vanished. In his grief, he ran, too ashamed to find the path they had taken so long ago to reach the palace. He reached the edge of a cliff, a great river below, and cried out to the god Apollo, who was driving his horses across the sky. The god did not reply. He could either not hear him above the sound of the horses or could not deign to grace such a betrayer. 

Newt knew that without his husband he would live forever incomplete. He threw himself off the cliff in an effort to end his agony, but god of the west wind, Zephyrus, caught him up, and set him gently on the shore below. 

The god formed himself before Newt and asked, "Why do you hasten to the underworld?" 

"I have betrayed the one whom I love and so I have lost him forever. It is unbearable to live without him." 

The god laughed and chided him gently. "You are a fool, my dear prince. Only when the gods will would your life be taken. The gods would have you endure the despair of your betrayal for the rest of your life." And then with a strong breeze, he left. And Newt knew he was right. The gods would never permit him to take his life. They would keep him on the earth to suffer. 

Newt walked the earth in misery before he came to the palace of his family. He told them of what their words had resulted in. But instead of pitying him, his parents rejoiced. They had their son back from the clutches of a monster. No matter his misery, they believed him to be in better care in their palace. The brothers, too, rejoiced. Their brother's beauty had diminished in his misery and his heart was too full of anguish to reach out to others. Soon, Newt left the place of little comfort and went from temple to temple to seek a god who would take his life from him.

No god would. 

Finally, he came to the temple of Zeus. He begged the patron deity of his lover to take his life. But Zeus, in accordance to his favorite, and as the god of justice, would not. Instead he made him a worker to pay for his crimes of betrayal against a favorite of the gods. 

The first day, Zeus led Newt to a wheat field that spanned miles around and told him to cut it all down so that it could be made into godly bread. And if he could not, he would be punished. Zeus vanished and Newt began to cut down the stalks. 

His arms ached and he withered under Apollo's sun. At the end of the first day, he began to see now that it was an impossible task. Then did a fox appear to him from a nearby tree. 

"You, boy-of-the-wheat-gold-hair, hearken to what I say," the fox called out. "You must take cover. A storm will come." 

"But I must not rest," replied Newt. "I must cut down the wheat." 

"You must take cover," the fox insisted. Not one to deny a fox who talked, Newt took cover the under the tree with the fox. A great storm soon came. The rain came so fast it would cut a person. The wind blew so hard it could knock down whole trees. When the rain storm finally passed, Newt raised himself from the burrow of the tree. The entire wheat field was cut down. The sharp rain had cut the stalks and the strong winds had gathered them. 

"Surely this is the work of Minho. He takes pity on me." Newt called back Zeus. The god was surprised and the next day he was sent on another task. This time he was led to a mountain. 

"There is a boulder blocking the path to my temple on the peak of the mountain. You must remove it." 

Newt climbed up the tall mountain and soon he saw the obtrusion. It was twice as tall as he and wider than the path. It must've weighed as much as ten full grown bulls. Newt knew that he could not move it. 

He had not even touched the boulder when a bird sang to him from a tree. 

"Hold tight as the mountain shakes.  
She cries boulders from her face.  
The thunder this mountain fears,  
She knows lightning will strike near." 

The clouds began to darken at once. They rolled in like grey ships in an armada, preparing their canons for war, and their spear heads to strike. Newt held tight to the mountain, far away from the boulder. The thunder began to sound like a hundred canons firing from their ships and surely did the mountain shake. The lightning struck at the boulder, never missing. Rocks fell from above and the dirt crumbled under his feet. And just as quickly the clouds formed, they disappeared. The boulder had been struck to pieces. 

Again Newt attributed the divine help to his husband. He cried from the mountaintop to thank him, to ask him to come back to him. No such reply came. 

The next day, Zeus granted him another impossible task. "There lies in the kingdom of Hades a flower which grows only in Persephone's garden. My wife is angry, and I seek to console her with the rare bloom. However Hades is also angry with me and will not permit me to visit. My subordinate is weary from a wounded heart and cannot go in my stead." 

This task, Newt heartily agreed to. By obtaining the flower, he would spare Minho this weary task. He could do this without his husbands help. 

He took the boat down the river and asked permission to enter inside Persephone's garden. She permitted him in and heard his quest. The flower she cut with a golden scissor and placed inside a golden box. 

"Happiness this flower grants, but mortal hands should never touch it," she warned. 

Thus, he left, carrying the box carefully as he traveled back to Zeus's temple. But he wondered. 

"If only I could give this flower to Minho, perhaps he would forgive me and forget the wrong I have done him." He fought his temptation to open the box and lost. His love for Minho was greater than his deference to the queen of the underworld. He opened the box. Inside lay the most beautiful flower- more beautiful than the rose, grander than the sunflower, deeper in color that Apollo's hyacinths. He picked it up with gentle hands, wanting to know if the petals were as silky as they looked. They were softer than the down feathers of a swan. But to disobey a rule was to pay consequence. For a mortal to behold such a godly flower was to be granted dreamless sleep, rather than happiness. 

Minho, with the speed of wind as was granted to him from his patron deity, came running to the unconscious Newt. 

"My dearest love!" He cried, for he knew now that not even betrayal could make him forget his love. "Open your eyes, come back to me." His tears fell on his lovers face but he stirred not. "Zeus!" He called to his patron deity. He appeared before him. 

"You bade him go to the underworld. Undo this evil. For all your godly glory, cannot you undo this? A favor, for am I not a favorite; am I not your most loyal subordinate?" 

"To heal one cursed by godly sleep will bring consequence," the god said gravely. 

"I will accept them." He clung tighter to the almost lifeless body of Newt. 

"You must give up your godly rights. No longer will you be a deity of storm. You will be stripped of your immortality and die a mortal death." 

"So be it." No hesitation gave the young god. He could not prize his immortality above his beloved's life. 

Zeus was pleased by his determined answers. He took the godliness from him. It pained Minho as if he was dying himself. 

"The task is done. He will wake." The task complete and Minho no longer under his wing, he left them. 

The lovers were reunited. No apologies were needed any longer. They each had learned their lessons in their time apart from each other. 

As thanks for the god that reunited them, they first made their way to the temple of Zeus. There they lit incense. Then they traveled back to the palace. The palace was no longer it's godly white, but made as a mortal king's castle with cut stone. Yet the fountain of healing remained. Ascelpius, deity of healing, still looked favorably upon the two. One, a mortal who would travel to the underworld. The other, a young god under the instruction of Zeus himself, who made no hesitation to give up his own godliness. Asclepius convinced Apollo, who was moved also by their actions, and bade them to keep the fountain to prevent ever being touched by human or godly disease. The goddess Aphrodite and her son Eros also heard of the lovers tale, and as deities of love, they blessed them with happy marriage. Eros, still young and mischievous, and as the deity also of sexual intercourse, gave them more interesting gifts. 

And so, Minho and Newt lived happily in their mortal life. Newt's parents had at last accepted the man who love their son. His brothers had a less fortunate ending. Their love of war brought them early deaths. Though angry at the consequences they brought upon them, the two, from the persuasion of Newt's kind heart, paid their respects at their graves. 

○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○

Lying in repose in their home, Newt asked about the people who had come before him to drink from the fountain for healing. 

"There are men who seek to change their destiny granted by the Fate's. And besides, I am not the one who gives them permission. The fountain belongs to Apollo. It is he who judges them, not I."

Above all, Newt had finally learned why he was not permitted to see Minho's face. 

"Why was I never allowed to look on you?" 

"The sun cannot shine while the storm is present," said he, previous deity of storm. "I feared hurting you." 

"I am no sun. Nor am I a subordinate of Apollo." 

"You are my sun. To me you are brighter and more beautiful than Apollo." 

"Shh. Do not say such things. Apollo may hear and then he may smite you with his rays." 

"So be it. You are beautiful. You are wonderful. No man nor god will deny me this fact." 

"So be it, my love, my Minho. I will stay with you forever."

**Author's Note:**

> Aha! A happy ending. Honestly it's all I want for this ship. And if you liked this story, I really suggest reading two of my favorite Greek myths. One is, of course, the story of Psyche. And the second is of Hyacinthus. If you have a smart phone, amazon has a free Kindle app and you can buy a lot of free books. The title of the boon I read these stories in was "a book of myths" by Jeanie Lang.


End file.
